1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technology for carrying out high quality printing using an original document.
2. Description of Related Art
There is a system that stores scan data read from a source document by a scanner in a storage device as document data, and that when copying the source document afterward, reads the document data corresponding to the source document from the storage device and prints. The system utilizes, when copying the source document using an image processing system such as an MFP (MultiFunction Peripheral), the document data corresponding to the source document as the data for printing rather than the scan data of the source document. As an example of such a system, there is a technology disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H10-143414 (1998). The technology disclosed in it is as follows.
First, when printing a source document (original), a two-dimensional code representing document management information of the document data is printed together with the document data. After that, when making a copy of the paper document on which the data is printed, the document data corresponding to the source document is retrieved and printed in accordance with the two-dimensional code detected from the paper document. Here, the term “document management information” refers to information for designating a storage location (storage device, storage area or the like) of the document data.
On the other hand, there is page layout printing that prints source document data on a plurality of continuous pages on a sheet of paper with a reduction arrangement (also referred to as “reduction layout”, “aggregation” or “combination”). The page layout printing is a function effective for draft printing, catalog printing and the like.
In addition, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2007-81936 describes a technique of printing data about print conditions such as paper size, direction of printing and aggregation conditions and about a document form in a two-dimensional code. Then, it discloses a technique of deciding the layout of a page using the two-dimensional code printed on paper when making a copy. In particular, it discloses a technique of prohibiting, when a scanned source document has already been 2-in-1 printed when making a copy, further aggregation of the source document image, or a technique of carrying out control for adjusting the direction of the images.
However, the foregoing conventional technology does not decide the printing position of the two-dimensional code taking account of the way the printed matter is utilized after printout.
When printing a document having a two-dimensional code assigned to each page in the reduction layout (2-in-1, 4-in-1 and the like), printed matter with a page layout as shown in FIG. 1 is obtained. As shown FIG. 1, since the pages each having the two-dimensional code are reduced and printed, the single page includes a plurality of reduced two-dimensional codes, thereby deteriorating the appearance of the printed matter. In addition, since the two-dimensional codes are reduced to be printed in this case, it becomes difficult to read the two-dimensional codes. Besides, since a plurality of two-dimensional codes must be processed, the performance of the printing processing is reduced.
Therefore an object of the present invention is to provide an image processing apparatus capable of outputting a two-dimensional code in a mode suitable for the source document data.